Hi Bob,
On 06/30/2013 06:30 PM, Bob Camp wrote:
Hi
Ummm…. errrr…. not so much.
Ions in the lattice are part of the crystal structure. When you "move" them by
sweeping you put stress on the quartz. That stress may take a *long* time to relax out.
Since there is now a defect in the lattice (where the ion was) the stress may be relieved
by an ion moving back to that location.
Quartz is swept to reduce it's radiation sensitivity. That's a big deal if you
are going to put the oscillator in outer space or if you expect to need to use
it when unexpected bright lights appear in the sky. Neither one is likely to be
of interest in a typical basement lab. The levels involved also would drive you
to radiation harden the rest of the oscillator circuit, not just the crystal.
There have been a series of papers on various influences on crystals. If the
blank is an SC, it can be tuned by an applied DC voltage. Many precision parts
have a DC short across the resonator for this reason. In that case, you would
not see anything to drive an ion anyway.
NIST have been using this effect for precision phase modulations.
I don't agree that swept crystal has not been talked about. It is
mentioned all over the precision crystal papers, it's there if you look
for it. It however does not make much sense to discuss it for us, since
we usually deal with complete oscillators and only rarely work with
single crystals, and in that case very rarely of the quality where swept
crystals occurs.
There is definitely more to it than sweeping the crystal.
Thanks Bob for the extra insight. The way sweeping works, won't a number
of additional runs help to re-melt the crystal and help "ironing out"
the dislocations in the crystal?
Cheers,
Magnus
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